The Golden Rules of Guild Wars 2

[Lensor]

Every company has its secrets: secret recipes, secret codes, secret programs, and secret ways of doing things. Some secrets are kept for important spy reasons, and some are kept simply because no one bothers sharing them. The secrets I’m sharing in this blog post are equal parts both. ArenaNet Game Designer, Ben Miller, gives us [...]

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[Sir Jack]

Also:
"It's okay if it's in an IWAY"

[sorudo]

they are pretty much stretching out in text what you can just as much experience in the game......and have your time well spend.....

[AJ Wolf]

Not my favorite article...made me kinda sleepy. Kinda didn't like how it seemed to say, "we know you will be ignoring your real friends and loved ones, so we'll make it easy for you to make new ones in game."

[Alaris]

I like when they discuss philosophy, it helps us understand what sets the game apart or why things are built the way they are... much more than most feature lists can.

For example, "when it's ready" usually means I can expect delays but I get a polished product in the end. Likewise, ANet has a philosophy to rethink everything, which means again longer iteration time but in the end more chance of the game to evolve rather than clone.

[Lady Rhonwyn]

The part "Cooperation is key" is one part that I really experienced during the last stress test.

I had heard about some spinach patch so, I went there. It turned out to be guarded by some veteran troll. He was a pain to kill, luckily, some other helpful soul turned up and together we managed to take him down. In most other MMO's I'd have hated that because now I couldn't raid that patch of spinach completely. In GW2, I welcomed the help, because I knew he wouldn't take away my reward for me.

And that is exactly why I love GW2 so far.

[harniq]

they are pretty much stretching out in text what you can just as much experience in the game......and have your time well spend.....

What this article means is that the experience is based on a design philosophy. That's a good thing because you know these good things didn't come out by accident.

Anyways my favourite part was the last one. I am the most important person in the game. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. /sarcam, basically it means milking a cashcow is best done with gloves and not by cutting open the udders. Again, that makes me a happy gamer. I want to give money when I believe it's well spent, but I hate it when I feel ripped off, for example with a 15euro montly on a game I barely play an hour a week. On the contrary I'd much rather pay 20euros out of free will by choosing something cool from the cashshop, but only if it doesn't increase my power. A.net does that pretty well.